Sporting crush 10-man Midtjylland 4-0 in Denmark to progress in Europa League | OneFootball

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·23 February 2023

Sporting crush 10-man Midtjylland 4-0 in Denmark to progress in Europa League

Article image:Sporting crush 10-man Midtjylland 4-0 in Denmark to progress in Europa League

Sporting consigned the poor performance and draw against Midtjylland in Lisbon last week to a distant memory by thrashing the Danish side 4-0 in the away leg tonight, thanks largely to an inspired display by attacking midfielder Pedro Gonçalves.

Captain Sebastián Coates gave the visitors an early lead, with the sending-off of Midtjylland’s Paulinho before the break putting Sporting in complete control.


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A brace from Pedro Gonçalves and a farcical own goal by Stefan Gartenmann saw the Portuguese side run out 5-1 winners on aggregate.

Multiple changes

As has been his wont, Sporting coach Rúben Amorim rang the changes with St. Juste, Ricardo Esgaio, Morita and Arthur Gomes coming into the starting XI, talking the places of Diomande, Bellerín, Nuno Santos and Trincão in relation to Monday’s victory in Chaves.

Understandably given they were playing in front of their home fans, Midtjylland showed far more initiative than in the first game, aggressively snapping into tackles and testing Sporting’s back line with a series of crosses into the box.

But the first chance of the game was at the other end of the pitch, Sporting breaking effectively and working the ball to Esgaio, whose shot from tight angle was saved by Lossi.

Coates opportune again

Two minutes later the visitors took the lead. Pedro Gonçalves swung over a corner, Morita flicked the ball on which fell at the feet of St. Juste, who prodded it towards goal. Dalsgaard’s attempted clearance crashed onto the underside of the bar and Sebastián Coates was on hand to nod it over the line.

Coates had also scored in the first leg, but a bad mistake from him was almost costly. The lanky Uruguayan misjudged a straightforward interception allowing Joel Andersson to slip Astrit Selmani through inside the box, but a superb interception by Ricardo Esgaio saved a certain goal.

In the 35th minute a corner for Midtjylland was turned into a rapier counter-attack by Sporting with Pedro Gonçalves playing a brilliant first-time throughball to set Edwards racing clean through on goal. The Englishman advanced to the edge of the box and tried to chip the goalkeeper but got his angles wrong, enabling Jonas Lossi to make an easy save.

Paulinho sees red

Sporting were looking comfortable and the game turned definitively in their favour shortly before half time as Brazilian left-back Paulinho picked up two yellow cards in two minutes and was sent off.

Somewhat surprisingly the visitors were getting plenty of joy from set pieces, and a corner just before the half-time whistle caused more panic in the Midtjylland defence, Pedro Gonçalves and Gonçalo Inácio both going close to doubling Sporting’s lead.

At the break Amorim brought on Héctor Bellerín for the yellow-carded Esgaio.

Down to ten men, Midtjylland still believed they could turn it around and the hosts were close to an equaliser right at the start of second half. The tricky Isaksen twisted and turned to create a shooting opportunity and drew a sharp reaction stop out of Adán.

Gonçalves destroys Midtjylland

Play switched to the other end where the irrepressible Pedro Gonçalves received a short pass from Arthur and struck a fantastic arching shot that was superbly saved by Lossi, tipping it over the bar.

Gonçalves was not to be denied, however. From the resulting corner the ball came out to Gonçalves on corner of the box. After seeing his initial effort charged down, Pote instantly latched onto rebound and lashed a brilliant volley into the corner of the net.

In the 64th minute Olsson slid in to meet a dangerous cross, but Adán was there to save.

All doubts about the eventual victors of the match were over in the 77th minute as Pedro Gonçalves beat Midtjylland goalkeeper Lossi with a shot from a similar position to his first goal, this time benefiting from a bid deflection off Olsson that completely wrongfooted the Danish goalkeeper.

Ugarte suspension

Three goals to the good and with an extra man, the match turned into something of a training exercise for Sporting, but Amorim will be annoyed that key midfielder Manuel Ugarte got into a running battle with Emam Ashour, picking up a yellow card in the process which rules him out of the next Europa League match.

The scoring was completed with a comical own goal. Under pressure from Pedro Gonçalves, Stefan Gartenmann attempted to pass back to his goalkeeper but Lossi had drifted wide to receive the pass and could only watch in horror as the ball trickled into the empty net.

Sporting go into tomorrow’s draw knowing their next opponents will certainly be less accommodating.

by

[0-1] Coates, 21’

[0-2] Pedro Gonçalves, 50’

[0-3] Pedro Gonçalves, 77’

[0-4] Gartenmann (own goal), 85’

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